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Right now, you want to be in CASH. Saving cash, stashing cash.  i’ve moved my cash from a large national bank to a smaller, local bank with ZERO exposure to anything Wall Street and a higher reliability rating.  You can find out how your bank stacks up at Bankrate’s Safe & Sound Ratings. More bank closings are coming though, some say numbering in the hundreds.

Now that the FDIC is insuring deposits up to $250,000 (temporarily, through December 31, 2009), it’s feeling a little safer out there, but still – could the Feds handle a run on banks?  If you’re concerned about safety, keeping your cash in a savings account that pays .025% isn’t all that much better than keeping it under your mattress.  And who wants to be standing in line when they close the doors?

Some financial talking heads like Jim Cramer are saying keep anything you need for the next five years in CASH.  My suggestion is, keep anything you bring in in the next two years in cash too!  Unless you like gambling, what would be the point of putting your money into the market right now?  The market hasn’t hit bottom yet, and having cash when it does look like it’s finally pulling up is the best position to be in.

We’ll be posting ways to find as much cash as you can as fast as you can, by tweaking your budget, saving, and making more money.

• Calculating Your Bank’s Health